Communication terminal, network component, base station and method for communicating

ABSTRACT

According to an aspect of this disclosure, a communication terminal is provided including a first determiner configured to determine, for a software application installed on the communication terminal, a desired communication behavior of the communication terminal for the exchange of data for the software application; a second determiner configured to determine a time for the exchange of data between the communication terminal and a mobile communication network depending on the determined desired communication behavior; and a transceiver configured to communicate with the mobile communication network at the determined time.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a national stage entry according to 35 U.S.C. §371of PCT application No.: PCT/EP2011/073883 filed on Dec. 22, 2011, whichclaims priority from U.S. Provisional application No.: 61542096 filed onSep. 30, 2011.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a communication terminal, a networkcomponent, a base station and a method for communicating.

BACKGROUND

On a mobile communication terminal, one or more applications may beinstalled and running that need to communicate with a mobilecommunication network for performing their intended functions. Efficientcommunication of such application-related data is desirable.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of this disclosure, a communication terminal isprovided including a first determiner configured to determine, for asoftware application installed on the communication terminal, a desiredcommunication behavior of the communication terminal for the exchange ofdata for the software application; a second determiner configured todetermine a time for the exchange of data between the communicationterminal and a mobile communication network depending on the determineddesired communication behavior; and a transceiver configured tocommunicate with the mobile communication network at the determinedtime.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, a network component of amobile communication network is provided including a determinerconfigured to determine, for at least one communication behavior of acommunication terminal for the exchange of data for a softwareapplication, the at least one communication behavior being desired bythe software application, a time suggested for the exchange of data forthe software application between the communication terminal and themobile communication network; and a transmitter configured to transmitan indication to the communication terminal specifying that for the atleast one communication behavior the determined time is suggested forthe exchange of data for the software application between thecommunication terminal and the mobile communication network.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, a method forcommunicating with a mobile communication network is provided includingdetermining, for a software application installed on the communicationterminal, a desired communication behavior of the communication terminalfor the exchange of data for the software application; determining atime for the exchange of data between the communication terminal and themobile communication network depending on the determined desiredcommunication behavior; and communicating with the mobile communicationnetwork at the determined time.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, a base station of amobile communication network is provided including a transmitterconfigured to transmit an indication of an expected load of the mobilecommunication network to a communication terminal.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, a communication terminalis provided including a receiver configured to receive, from a basestation of a mobile communication network, an indication of an expectedload of the mobile communication network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the sameparts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarilyto scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating theprinciples of various embodiments. In the following description, variousaspects are described with reference to the following drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 shows a communication system according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 2 shows a state diagram according to an aspect of this disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows a protocol structure according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 4 shows a first protocol structure and a second protocol structure.

FIG. 5 shows a communication system according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 6 shows a communication terminal according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 7 shows a network component according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 8 shows a flow diagram according to an aspect of this disclosure.

FIG. 9 shows a base station according to an aspect of this disclosure.

FIG. 10 shows a communication terminal according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 11 shows a protocol stack according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 12 shows a mobile terminal protocol stack according to an aspect ofthis disclosure.

FIG. 13 shows a presence service model according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 14 shows a first load-time diagram and a second load-time diagram.

FIG. 15 shows a mobile terminal architecture according to an aspect ofthis disclosure.

FIG. 16 shows a flow diagram according to an aspect of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawingsthat show, by way of illustration, specific details and aspects of thisdisclosure in which the disclosed embodiments may be practiced. Theseaspects of this disclosure are described in sufficient detail to enablethose skilled in the art to practice the disclosed embodiments. Otheraspects of this disclosure may be utilized and structural, logical, andelectrical changes may be made without departing from the scope of thedisclosed embodiments. The various aspects of this disclosure are notnecessarily mutually exclusive, as some aspects of this disclosure canbe combined with one or more other aspects of this disclosure to formnew aspects.

3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) has introduced LTE (Long TermEvolution) into the Release 8 version of UMTS (Universal MobileTelecommunications System) standards.

The air interface of an LTE communication system is called E-UTRA(Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) and is commonly referred toas ‘3.9G’. In December 2010, the ITU recognized that current versions ofLTE and other evolved 3G technologies that do not fulfill “IMT-Advanced”requirements could nevertheless be considered ‘4G’, provided theyrepresent forerunners to IMT-Advanced and “a substantial level ofimprovement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initialthird generation systems deployed already. LTE is therefore sometimealso referred to as ‘4G’ (mainly for marketing reasons).

In comparison with its predecessor UMTS, LTE offers an air interfacethat has been further optimized for packet data transmission byimproving the system capacity and the spectral efficiency. Among otherenhancements, the maximum net transmission rate has been increasedsignificantly, namely to 300 Mbps in the downlink transmission directionand to 75 Mbps in the uplink transmission direction. LTE supportsscalable bandwidths of from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz and is based on newmultiple access methods, such as OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiple Access)/TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) in downlinkdirection (tower, i.e. base station, to handset, i.e. mobile terminal)and SC-FDMA (Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access)/TDMA inuplink direction (handset to tower). OFDMA/TDMA is a multicarriermultiple access method in which a subscriber (i.e. a mobile terminal) isprovided with a defined number of subcarriers in the frequency spectrumand a defined transmission time for the purpose of data transmission.The RF (Radio Frequency) capability of a mobile terminal according toLTE (also referred to as User Equipment (UE), e.g. a cell phone) fortransmission and reception has been set to 20 MHz. A physical resourceblock (PRB) is the baseline unit of allocation for the physical channelsdefined in LTE. It includes a matrix of 12 subcarriers by 6 or 7OFDMA/SC-FDMA symbols. At the physical layer a pair of one OFDMA/SC-FDMAsymbol and one subcarrier is denoted as a ‘resource element’. Acommunication system that is used according to an aspect of thisdisclosure and which for example a communication system according to LTEis described in the following with reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 shows a communication system 100 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The communication system 100 is a cellular mobile communication system(also referred to as cellular radio communication network in thefollowing) including a radio access network (e.g. an E-UTRAN, EvolvedUMTS (Universal Mobile Communications System) Terrestrial Radio AccessNetwork according to LTE (Long Term Evolution)) 101 and a core network(e.g. an EPC, Evolved Packet Core, according LTE) 102. The radio accessnetwork 101 may include base (transceiver) stations (e.g. eNodeBs, eNBs,according to LTE) 103. Each base station 103 provides radio coverage forone or more mobile radio cells 104 of the radio access network 101.

A mobile terminal (also referred to as UE, user equipment) 105 locatedin a mobile radio cell 104 may communicate with the core network 102 andwith other mobile terminals 105 via the base station providing coveragein (in other words operating) the mobile radio cell. In other words, thebase station 103 operating the mobile radio cell 104 in which the mobileterminal 105 is located provides the E-UTRA user plane terminationsincluding the PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) layer, the RLC(Radio Link Control) layer and the MAC (Medium Access Control) layer andcontrol plane terminations including the RRC (Radio Resource Control)layer towards the mobile terminal 105.

Control and user data are transmitted between a base station 103 and amobile terminal 105 located in the mobile radio cell 104 operated by thebase station 103 over the air interface 106 on the basis of a multipleaccess method.

The base stations 103 are interconnected with each other by means of afirst interface 107, e.g. an X2 interface. The base stations 103 arealso connected by means of a second interface 108, e.g. an S1 interface,to the core network, e.g. to an MME (Mobility Management Entity) 109 viaa S1-MME interface and to a Serving Gateway (S-GW) 110 by means of anS1-U interface. The S1 interface supports a many-to-many relationbetween MMEs/S-GWs 109, 110 and the base stations 103, i.e. a basestation 103 can be connected to more than one MME/S-GW 109, 110 and anMME/S-GW can 109, 110 be connected to more than one base station 103.This enables network sharing in LTE.

For example, the MME 109 may be responsible for controlling the mobilityof mobile terminals located in the coverage area of E-UTRAN, while theS-GW 110 is responsible for handling the transmission of user databetween mobile terminals 105 and core network 102.

In case of LTE, the radio access network 101, i.e. the E-UTRAN 101 incase of LTE, can be seen to consist of the base station 103, i.e. theeNBs 103 in case of LTE, providing the E-UTRA user plane (PDCP/RLC/MAC)and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations towards the UE 105.

An eNB 103 may for example host the following functions:

-   -   Functions for Radio Resource Management: Radio Bearer Control,        Radio Admission Control, Connection Mobility Control, dynamic        allocation of resources to UEs 105 in both uplink and downlink        (scheduling);    -   IP header compression and encryption of user data stream;    -   Selection of an MME 109 at UE 105 attachment when no routing to        an MME 109 can be determined from the information provided by        the UE 105;    -   Routing of User Plane data towards Serving Gateway (S-GW) 110;    -   Scheduling and transmission of paging messages (originated from        the MME);    -   Scheduling and transmission of broadcast information (originated        from the MME 109 or O&M (Operation and Maintenance));    -   Measurement and measurement reporting configuration for mobility        and scheduling;    -   Scheduling and transmission of PWS (Public Warning System, which        includes ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System) and CMAS        (Commercial Mobile Alert System)) messages (originated from the        MME 109);    -   CSG (Closed Subscriber Group) handling.

Each base station of the communication system 100 controlscommunications within its geographic coverage area, namely its mobileradio cell 104 that is ideally represented by a hexagonal shape. Whenthe mobile terminal 105 is located within a mobile radio cell 104 and iscamping on the mobile radio cell 104 (in other words is registered withthe mobile radio cell 104) it communicates with the base station 103controlling that mobile radio cell 104. When a call is initiated by theuser of the mobile terminal 105 (mobile originated call) or a call isaddressed to the mobile terminal 105 (mobile terminated call), radiochannels are set up between the mobile terminal 105 and the base station103 controlling the mobile radio cell 104 in which the mobile station islocated (and on which it is camping). If the mobile terminal 105 movesaway from the original mobile radio cell 104 in which a call was set upand the signal strength of the radio channels established in theoriginal mobile radio cell 104 weakens, the communication system mayinitiate a transfer of the call to radio channels of another mobileradio cell 104 into which the mobile terminal 105 moves.

As the mobile terminal 105 continues to move throughout the coveragearea of the communication system 100, control of the call may betransferred between neighboring mobile radio cells 104. The transfer ofcalls from mobile radio cell 104 to mobile radio cell 104 is termedhandover (or handoff).

A handover may also occur between base stations 103 operating accordingto different radio access technologies. This is illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 shows a state diagram 200 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The state diagram 200 includes the UMTS (UTRA, 3G) mobile terminalstates CELL_DCH 201, CELL_FACH 202, CELL_PCH/URA_PCH 203, and UTRA_Idle204, the LTE (E-UTRA) mobile terminal states RRC CONNECTED 205 and RRCIDLE 206 and the GSM (GERAN, 2G and 2.5G) mobile terminal statesGSM_Connected 207, GPRS Packet Transfer Mode 208, and GSM_Idle/GPRSPacket_Idle 209. Contrary to UMTS, there are only two E-UTRA RRC statesdefined for the mobile terminal 105. FIG. 2 can be seen to illustratethe mobility support between E-UTRA, UTRA and GERAN.

According to a first state transition 210, a handover may be carried outbetween E-UTRA (i.e. a base station 103 operating according to LTE) andUTRAN (i.e. a base station 103 operating according to UTMS).

According to a second state transition 211, a handover may be carriedout between E-UTRA (i.e. a base station 103 operating according to LTE)and GERAN (i.e. a base station 103 operating according to GSM).

Third state transitions 212 may occur between states of the UTRAN, theGERAN, and the E-UTRAN, e.g. in case of cell reselection without thehandover of an active call. It should be noted that state transitionsbetween states of the UTRAN and GERAN are omitted for simplicity but mayalso be possible.

Fourth state transitions 213 may occur between states of the same radioaccess technology, e.g. when a connection is released or a connection isestablished. The mobile terminal 105 is in RRC_CONNECTED when an RRCconnection has been established. If this is not the case, i.e. no RRCconnection is established, the mobile terminal 105 is in RRC_IDLE state.

The two RRC (Radio Resource Control) states RRC_IDLE and RRC_CONNECTEDin E-UTRA can be characterized as follows:

RRC IDLE

-   -   Mobile terminal specific DRX (Discontinuous Reception) may be        configured by upper protocol layers;    -   Mobility is controlled by the mobile terminal 105;    -   The mobile terminal 105        -   may acquire system information (SI);        -   monitors a paging channel to detect incoming calls and SI            change;        -   performs neighboring cell measurements for the cell            (re-)selection process.

RRC CONNECTED

A mobile terminal 105 is in RRC_CONNECTED when an RRC connection hasbeen established.

-   -   Transfer of unicast data to/from the mobile terminal 105;    -   Mobility is controlled by the radio access network 101 (handover        and cell change order);    -   The mobile terminal 105 may be configured with mobile terminal        specific DRX (Discontinuous Reception) at lower protocol layers.    -   The mobile terminal 105        -   may acquire system information (SI);        -   monitors a paging channel and/or SIB (system information            block) Type 1 content to detect SI change;        -   monitors control channels associated with the shared data            channel to determine if data is scheduled for it;        -   performs neighboring cell measurements and measurement            reporting to assist the network in making handover            decisions;        -   provides channel quality and feedback information to the            radio access network 101.

According to DRX the PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel)monitoring activity of the mobile terminal 105 is controlled. On thePDCCH, various RNTIs (Radio Network Temporary Identifiers) can be found.

If the mobile terminal 105 is in RRC_IDLE state it is expected to listento the P-RNTI (the so-called paging indicator) transmitted on the PDCCHwhich may announce the presence of a paging message on the PDSCH. If DRXis applied in RRC_IDLE, the mobile terminal 105 only needs to monitorone Paging Occasion (PO) per DRX cycle. System Information (SI)broadcast by the base station 103 controls DRX operation by specifying amobile terminal specific paging cycle in SIB-Type2. (It should be notedthat SIB (System Information Block)-Type2 is received by all mobileterminals camping in a given radio cell, but the equation used by amobile terminal 105 in RRC_IDLE state to calculate its individual PagingOccasion (PO) has as input variable the subscriber's (i.e. mobileterminal's) unique IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity)).

If DRX is configured in RRC_CONNECTED for a mobile terminal 105, themobile terminal 105 is allowed to monitor the PDCCH (Physical DownlinkControl Channel) discontinuously (in order to save energy); otherwisethe mobile terminal 105 monitors the PDCCH continuously. The RRC (RadioResource Control) layer controls DRX operation by configuring timers andparameters, for example as shown in table 1.

TABLE 1 longDRX-CycleStartOffset The value of longDRX-Cycle is in numberof sub-frames. If shortDRX- Cycle is configured, the value oflongDRX-Cycle shall be a multiple of the shortDRX-Cycle value. The valueof drxStartOffset value is in number of sub-frames. onDurationTimer Thevalue in number of PDCCH sub-frames. drx-InactivityTimer The value innumber of PDCCH sub-frames. drx-RetransmissionTimer The value in numberof PDCCH sub-frames. shortDRX-Cycle The value in number of sub-frames.drxShortCycleTimer The value in multiples of shortDRX-Cycle.

The protocols for the C-Plane and the U-Plane of the E-UTRAN 101according to LTE are illustrated in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 shows a protocol structure 300 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure. The LTE air interface (also referred to as Uu interface) islogically divided into three protocol layers. The entities ensuring andproviding the functionality of the respective protocol layers areimplemented both in the mobile terminal 105 and the base station 103.The bottommost layer is the physical layer (PHY) 301, which representsthe protocol layer 1 (L1) according to the OSI (Open SystemInterconnection) reference model. The protocol layer arranged above PHYis the data link layer, which represents the protocol layer 2 (L2)according to the OSI reference model. In an LTE communication system, L2consists of plurality of sublayers, namely the Medium Access Control(MAC) sublayer 302, the Radio Link Control (RLC) sublayer 303 and thePacket Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) sublayer 304. The topmost layerof the Uu air interface is the network layer, which is the protocollayer 3 (L3) according to the OSI reference model and consists of theRadio Resource Control (RRC) layer 305 on the C-Plane 307. On theC-Plane 307, there is further the NAS (Non-Access Stratum) protocollayer 306.

Each protocol layer 301 to 306 provides the protocol layer above it withits services via defined service access points (SAPs). To provide abetter understanding of the protocol layer architecture, the SAPs wereassigned unambiguous names: The PHY 301 provides its services to the MAClayer 302 via transport channels, the MAC layer 302 provides itsservices to the RLC layer 303 via logical channels, and the RLC layer303 provides its services to the RRC layer 305 and the PDCP layer 304 asdata transfer as function of the RLC mode, i.e. TM (Transparent Mode),UM (Unacknowledged Mode) and AM (Acknowledged Mode). Further, the PDCPlayer 304 provides its services to the RRC layer 305 and the U-Plane 308upper layers via radio bearers, specifically as Signaling Radio Bearers(SRB) to the RRC 305 and as Data Radio Bearers (DRB) to the U-Plane 308upper layers. According to LTE a maximum of 3 SRBs and 11 DRBs iscurrently supported.

The radio protocol architecture is not just split horizontally into theabove-described protocol layers; it is also split vertically into the“control plane” (C-Plane) 307 and the “user plane” (U-Plane) 308. Theentities of the control plane 307 are used to handle the exchange ofsignaling data between the mobile terminal 105 and the base station 103,which are required among other for the establishment, reconfigurationand release of physical channels, transport channels, logical channels,signaling radio bearers and data radio bearers, whereas the entities ofthe user plane 308 are used to handle the exchange of user data betweenthe mobile terminal 105 and the base station 103. According to oneaspect of this disclosure, in accordance with LTE, each protocol layerhas particular prescribed functions:

-   -   The PHY layer 301 is primarily responsible for i) error        detection on the transport channel; ii) channel        encoding/decoding of the transport channel; iii) Hybrid ARQ soft        combining; iv) mapping of the coded transport channel onto        physical channels; v) modulation and demodulation of physical        channels.    -   The MAC layer 302 is primarily responsible for i) mapping        between logical channels and transport channels; ii) error        correction through HARQ; iii) logical channel        prioritization; iv) transport format selection.    -   The RLC layer 303 is primarily responsible for i) error        correction through ARQ, ii) concatenation, segmentation and        reassembly of RLC SDUs (Service Data Unit); iii) re-segmentation        and reordering of RLC data PDUs (Protocol Data Unit). Further,        the RLC layer 303 is modeled such that there is an independent        RLC entity for each radio bearer (data or signaling).    -   The PDCP layer 304 is primarily responsible for header        compression and decompression of IP (Internet Protocol) data        flows, ciphering and deciphering of user plane data and control        plane data, and integrity protection and integrity verification        of control plane data. The PDCP layer 304 is modeled such that        each RB (i.e. DRB and SRB, except for SRBO) is associated with        one PDCP entity. Each PDCP entity is associated with one or two        RLC entities depending on the RB characteristic (i.e.        uni-directional or bi-directional) and RLC mode.    -   The RRC layer 305 is primarily responsible for the control plane        signaling between the mobile terminal 105 and the base station        103 and performs among other the following functions: i)        broadcast of system information, ii) paging, iii) establishment,        reconfiguration and release of physical channels, transport        channels, logical channels, signaling radio bearers and data        radio bearers. Signaling radio bearers are used for the exchange        of RRC messages between the mobile terminal 105 and the base        station 103.

Differences between the C-Plane (control plane) 307 and the U-Plane(user plane) 308 according to E-UTRA (LTE) technology are depicted inFIG. 4. The RRC protocol and all lower layer protocols (PDCP, RLC, MAC,and PHY) terminate in the eNB, while the NAS protocol layer 306terminates in the MME 109 in the EPC 102.

FIG. 4 shows a first protocol structure 400 and a second protocolstructure 410.

The first protocol structure 400 corresponds to the U-Plane and thesecond protocol structure 410 corresponds to the C-Plane.

Analogously to the illustration in FIG. 3, the protocol structures 400,410 include a physical layer 401, a MAC layer 402, an RLC (Radio LinkControl) layer 403, a PDCP layer 404, an RRC layer 405, and a NAS(Non-Access Stratum) protocol layer 406.

In the physical layer 401, the MAC layer 402, the RLC layer 403, thePDCP layer 404, and the RRC layer 405 the terminal points of thecommunication are the mobile terminal (UE) 411 and the base station(eNB) 412.

In the NAS protocol layer 406, the terminal points of the communicationare the UE 411 and the MME 413.

With LTE the UMTS air interface is further optimized for packet datatransmission by improving the system capacity and the spectralefficiency. However, the enhancements for LTE technology are notrestricted to the air interface. The core network architecture for3GPP's LTE wireless communication standard is also enhanced. Thisendeavor is commonly known as SAE (System Architecture Evolution).

SAE refers to the evolution of the GPRS Core Network, with somedifferences:

-   -   simplified architecture    -   all IP (Internet protocol) Network (AIPN)    -   support for higher throughput and lower latency radio access        networks (RANs)    -   support for, and mobility between, multiple heterogeneous RANs,        including legacy systems as GPRS, but also non-3GPP systems        (e.g. WiMAX)

According to the SAE architecture, the main component is the EvolvedPacket Core (e.g. forming the core network of the communication system100 illustrated in FIG. 1). The Evolved Packet Core (EPC) includes:

-   -   A Mobility Management Entity (MME): The MME is the key        control-node for the LTE radio access network (E-UTRAN) and,        according to LTE, holds the following functions:        -   NAS signaling;        -   NAS signaling security;        -   AS (Access Stratum) Security control;        -   Inter CN (Core Network) node signaling for mobility between            3GPP access networks;        -   Idle mode UE Reachability (including control and execution            of paging retransmission);        -   Tracking Area List (TAL) management (for UE in idle and            active mode);        -   PDN GW (Packet Data Network Gateway) and Serving GW            selection;        -   MME selection for handovers with MME change;        -   SGSN (Serving GPRS (General Packet Radio System) Support            Node) selection for handovers to 2G or 3G 3GPP access            networks;        -   Roaming;        -   Authentication;        -   Bearer management functions including dedicated bearer            establishment;        -   Support for PWS (which includes ETWS and CMAS) message            transmission;        -   Optionally performing paging optimization.    -   A Serving Gateway (S-GW): The S-GW holds, according to LTE, the        following functions:        -   The local Mobility Anchor point for inter-eNB handover;        -   Mobility anchoring for inter-3GPP mobility;        -   E-UTRAN idle mode downlink packet buffering and initiation            of network triggered service request procedure;        -   Lawful Interception;        -   Packet routing and forwarding;        -   Transport level packet marking in the uplink and the            downlink;        -   Accounting on user and QCI (QoS (Quality of Service) Class            Identifier) granularity for inter-operator charging;        -   Uplink and Downlink charging per UE, PDN, and QCI.    -   A PDN Gateway (P-GW): According to LTE, the PDN Gateway provides        connectivity from the UE to external packet data networks by        being the point of exit and entry of traffic for the UE. A UE        may have simultaneous connectivity with more than one P-GW for        accessing multiple PDNs. The P-GW performs policy enforcement,        packet filtering for each user, charging support, lawful        Interception and packet screening. Another key role of the P-GW        is to act as the anchor for mobility between 3GPP and non-3GPP        technologies such as WiMAX and 3GPP2 (CDMA 1X and EvDO        (Evolution Data Optimized)).

In the following, the network architecture of a communication system(e.g. a 3GPP communication system) with three different Radio AccessNetworks (RANs) is described with reference to FIG. 5 (for thenon-roaming case).

FIG. 5 shows a communication system 500 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The communication system 500 includes an E-UTRAN 501 and a core network502.

The communication system 500 corresponds to the communication system 100wherein in FIG. 1, the E-UTRAN 101, 501 is shown in higher detail whilein FIG. 5, the core network 102, 502 is shown in higher detail.

A mobile terminal 503 which may correspond to the mobile terminal 105may connect to the E-UTRAN 501 by means of an air interface (Uuinterface) 504.

The core network 502 includes a Serving Gateway 505, a PDN (Packet DataNetwork) Gateway 506, a PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function) 507,an MME (Mobility Management Entity) 508, and a HSS (Home SubscriberServer) 509, an SGSN (Serving GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)Support Node) 510.

The E-UTRAN 501 exchanges information or commands with the ServingGateway 505 by means of an S1-U interface 511. The Serving Gateway 505is coupled to the PDN Gateway 506 by means of an S5 interface 512. ThePDN Gateway 506 and the PCRF 507 may access IP (Internet Protocol)services 515 (i.e. may access, for example, corresponding servers)provided by the operator of the mobile communication system 500 by meansof an SGi interface 513 and an Rx interface 514, respectively.

The PCRF 507 is coupled to the PDN Gateway 506 by means of a Gxinterface 516. The Serving Gateway 505 is coupled by means of an S4interface 524 with the SGSN 510. The Serving Gateway 505 may further becoupled to an UTRAN (i.e. a radio access network according to UMTS) 517via a S12 interface 518. The MME 508 is coupled by means of an S6ainterface 525 with the HSS 509. The MME 508 is further coupled by meansof an S1-MME interface 526 to the E-UTRAN 501.

The SGSN 510 may support legacy access to the UTRAN 517 and/or a GERAN(GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) EDGE (Enhanced Data Ratesfor GSM Evolution) Radio Access Network) 519. The SGSN 510 is coupledwith the MME 508 via an S3 interface 522. The Serving Gateway 505 iscoupled with the MME 508 via an S11 interface 523.

GERAN is also referred to as 2G and 2.5G. UTRAN is a collective term forthe NodeBs and Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) which make up the UMTSradio access network. This communications network, commonly referred toas 3G, can carry many traffic types from real-time Circuit Switched toIP based Packet Switched. The UTRAN includes at least one NodeB (i.e. aUMTS base station) that is connected to at least one Radio NetworkController (RNC). An RNC provides control functionalities for one ormore NodeBs. A NodeB and an RNC can be the same device, although typicalimplementations have a separate RNC located in a central locationserving multiple NodeBs. An RNC together with its corresponding NodeBsare called the Radio Network Subsystem (RNS). There can be more than oneRNS present per UTRAN.

The E-UTRAN 501 is the 3GPP Radio Access Network for LTE (3.9G) that iscurrently being worked on. The E-UTRA air interface uses OFDMA for thedownlink (i.e. for the transmission direction from the base station tothe mobile terminal) and Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) for the uplink(i.e. for the transmission direction from the mobile terminal to thebase station). It employs MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) with upto four antennas per (base and user) station. The use of OFDM enablesE-UTRA to be much more flexible in its use of spectrum than the olderCDMA based systems, such as UTRAN. OFDM has a link spectral efficiencygreater than CDMA, and when combined with modulation formats such as64QAM, and techniques as MIMO, E-UTRA is expected to be considerablymore efficient than W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) withHSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and HSUPA (High Speed UplinkPacket Access).

A user of a mobile terminal 105 may install (possibly numerous) thirdparty (software) applications on his device (i.e. on his mobileterminal, e.g. his cell phone) that may require an always-on userexperience and typically exhibit exchange of bursty and sporadic packetdata. Such a packet data exchange is for example generated by

-   -   User interactions (for instance: chatting, gaming, browsing,        etc.),    -   Background activities (for instance: status updates, location        updates, etc.), or    -   Autonomous behaviors (for instance: keep alive messages to check        that a link between two devices is operating or to prevent this        link from being terminated).

Such applications are typically designed without specific considerationof the demands they place on the radio air interface. Their behavior cantherefore for example result in

-   -   a disproportionate amount of control signaling (compared to        u-plane traffic),    -   a reduced efficiency of the radio access network 101, and    -   an increased power consumption of the mobile terminal 105.

3GPP is currently in a process of discussing different simulation setupsfor Diverse Data Applications (DDAs) to derive typical trafficcharacteristics that said third party applications may cause.

Aspects of this disclosure which can be seen to address the above issuesare described in the following.

FIG. 6 shows a communication terminal 600 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The communication terminal 600 includes a first determiner 601configured to determine, for a software application installed on thecommunication terminal, a desired communication behavior of thecommunication terminal for the exchange of data for the softwareapplication, e.g. for the exchange of data emerging from (or consumedby) the software application.

The communication terminal 600 further includes a second determiner 602configured to determine a time for the exchange of data between thecommunication terminal and a mobile communication network depending onthe determined desired communication behavior.

Further, the communication terminal 600 includes a transceiver 603configured to communicate with the mobile communication network at thedetermined time.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, in other words, acommunication terminal acquires information about data transmissionsdesired (or required) by a software application installed (and/orrunning) on the communication terminal. For example, the softwareapplication may require that once during a certain period, a certainamount of data needs to be transmitted. The information may for examplealso include the information how long such a required data transmissioncan be delayed. Exchange of data (e.g. the transmission of data by thecommunication terminal to a mobile communication network or thereception of data by the communication terminal from a mobilecommunication network) may be scheduled according to the determinedinformation. In should be noted that an exchange of data between thecommunication terminal and the mobile communication network does notnecessarily include the transmission of data in both directions i.e. thetransmission of data from the communication terminal to the mobilecommunication network and the transmission of data from the mobilecommunication network to the mobile terminal but may also include thetransmission of data in only one direction. In other words, an exchangeof data may be understood as including a unidirectional transmission ofdata as well as a bidirectional communication of data. An exchange ofdata may also be referred to as a communication of data or a datacommunication.

An exchange of data for a data application may for example mean anexchange of data emerging from (or consumed by) the softwareapplication, i.e. a transmission of data emerging from (e.g. generatedby) the software application and/or a reception of data consumed by(e.g. to be processed by) the software application.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the first determiner isconfigured to determine the desired communication behavior based oninformation provided by the software application to the firstdeterminer.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the first determiner isconfigured to determine the desired communication behavior based oninformation about transmission characteristics of the softwareapplication.

For example, the first determiner is configured to receive theinformation about transmission characteristics of the softwareapplication from the software application.

The communication terminal may further include a security moduleconfigured to check at least one of the integrity and the authenticityof the information about the transmission characteristics.

The information about the transmission characteristics of the softwareapplication may be an indication of an application class of the softwareapplication.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the communication terminalfurther includes a receiver configured to receive, from the mobilecommunication network, for at least one desired communication behaviorof the communication terminal, a suggested time for the exchange of databetween the communication terminal and the mobile communication networkand wherein the second determiner is configured to determine the timefor the exchange of data between the communication terminal and themobile communication network based on the received suggested time.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the transceiver is configuredto establish a communication connection to the mobile communicationnetwork at the determined time.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the exchange of data for thesoftware application is the exchange of data used by the softwareapplication, e.g. the exchange of data emerging from and/or consumed bythe software application.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the exchange of data used bythe software application includes at least one of the sending of datagenerated by the software application and the reception of data to beprocessed by the software application (in other words, the term“exchange of data” may cover the bi-directional exchange of data inuplink and downlink direction).

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the transceiver is configuredto exchange data used by the software application, e.g. transmit and/orreceive data used by the software application at the determined time.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the first determiner isconfigured to determine the desired communication behavior based ondetecting the communication behavior of the software application duringa predetermined period.

For example, the first determiner is configured to determine the desiredcommunication behavior as the detected communication behavior.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the desired communicationbehavior includes at least one of an amount of data to be transmitted orreceived by the software application during a certain period of time, afrequency of an occurrence of a desired transmission or reception ofdata for the software application.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the first determiner isconfigured to determine, for each of a plurality of softwareapplications installed on the communication terminal, a desiredcommunication behavior of the communication terminal for the exchange ofdata for the software application and wherein the second determiner isconfigured to determine a time for the exchange of data for each of theplurality of software applications between the communication terminaland the mobile communication network depending on the determined desiredcommunication behaviors and wherein the transceiver is configured toexchange data for each of the plurality of software applications withthe mobile communication network at the determined time. In other words,according to one aspect of this disclosure the second determiner maycoordinate/synchronize the exchange of data for a plurality ofapplications running on the mobile terminal such that for example thetransfer of data for the plurality of applications is performed duringthe same period, e.g. such that the number of connection set-up attemptscan be reduced. Ideally, only one communication connection needs to beestablished between the communication terminal and the mobilecommunication network (infrastructure) via which the data for all theapplications is transmitted.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the determined time is aperiod of time.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the second determiner isconfigured to determine a radio cell of the mobile communication networkfor the exchange of data between the communication terminal and themobile communication network (if more than one cell is available and/orsuitable for communication) based on the desired communication behaviorand the transceiver is configured to exchange data (e.g. communicate)with the mobile communication network at the determined time using thedetermined radio cell.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the second determiner isconfigured to receive information about the expected load of the mobilecommunication network and is configured to determine the time for theexchange of data between the communication terminal and the mobilecommunication network based on the information about the expected load.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the second determiner isconfigured to determine occasions for the exchange of data between thecommunication terminal and the mobile communication network taking intoaccount at least one of the following:

-   -   information received from the mobile communication network about        the expected load.    -   information received one or more applications residing on the        mobile terminal.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, the second determinercoordinates and reconciles the various diverse application'srequirements and needs.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the information about theexpected load received by the second determiner is received from themobile communication network.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the information about theexpected load received by the second determiner is based measurementsgathered by the mobile communication network on at least one interface.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the measurements collected bythe mobile communication network were gathered (in case of LTE) at leaston any of the following interfaces:

-   -   the LTE Uu (air interface) between mobile the mobile terminal        and the mobile communication network,    -   the S1 interface between E-UTRAN and EPC,    -   the SG5 interface between S-GW and PDN Gateway, or    -   the SGi interface between PDN Gateway and Internet Services.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the information about theexpected load received by the second determiner is based on prediction.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the information about theexpected (predicted) load received by the second determiner is valid fora certain period of time.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the information about theexpected load received by the second determiner is “predicted load overtime” (for instance, in form of a timeline) for at least one cell of themobile communication network (e.g., it may comprise information for thecurrent cell and several neighboring cells at any given location).

The communication terminal 600 may for example communicate with anetwork component as illustrated in FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 shows a network component 700 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The network component 700 includes a determiner 701 configured todetermine, for at least one communication behavior of a communicationterminal for the exchange of data for a software application, e.g.emerging from (or consumed by) a software application residing on thecommunication terminal (or its counterpart, i.e. the application'sserver, in the Internet 515), the at least one communication behaviorbeing desired by the software application, a time suggested for theexchange of data for the software application between the communicationterminal and the mobile communication network.

The network component 700 further includes a transmitter 702 configuredto transmit an indication to the communication terminal specifying thatfor the at least one communication behavior the determined time issuggested for the exchange of data for the software application betweenthe communication terminal and the mobile communication network.

The network component 700 is for example a node in the RAN (for instancea base station, such as in case of LTE an eNodeB) or a node in the corenetwork (for instance, in case of LTE, a S-GW or a PDN Gateway).

According to one aspect of this dislosure, the determiner is configuredto determine the suggested time based on an estimation of the expectedload of the mobile communication network.

For example, according to one aspect of this dislosure, the determineris configured to compile information about the expected load asdescribed above, i.e. to collect measurements on any of thebefore-mentioned interfaces and to predict load over a certain period oftime.

According to one aspect of this dislosure, the determiner is configuredto determine a suitable period of time for exchange of application data.The communication terminal 600 may for example carry out a method asillustrated in FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 shows a flow diagram 800 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The flow diagram 800 illustrates a method for communicating with amobile communication network.

In 801, for a software application installed on the communicationterminal, a desired communication behavior of the communication terminalfor the exchange of data for the software application is determined.

In 802, a (suitable) time for the exchange of data between thecommunication terminal and the mobile communication network isdetermined depending on the determined desired communication behavior.The determination may for example also depend on the expected(predicted) load in the mobile communication network.

In 803, data is exchanged with the mobile communication network at thedetermined time.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, a method correspondingto the network component 700 is provided.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, that may be usedindependently and may also be combined with the aspects of thisdisclosure described above with reference to FIGS. 6 to 8, a basestation as illustrated in FIG. 9 is provided.

FIG. 9 shows a base station 900 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The base station 900 is a base station of a mobile communication networkand a transmitter 901 configured to transmit an indication of anexpected (predicted) load of the mobile communication network to acommunication terminal.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, in other words, the radioaccess network of a mobile communication network informs a communicationterminal (e.g. a subscriber terminal of the mobile communicationnetwork) about the expected network load, e.g. in form of a timeline(e.g. as a table or as an XML file) indicating the expected load duringa predetermined period, e.g. during the following one or more hours orthe following one or more days or, for example, of the typical loaddistribution during the 24 hours of a day.

The network load may for example include the load within one or morecertain radio cells (e.g. a radio cell in which the communicationterminal is located and for example radio cells neighboring that cell)and may thus be seen to include the load on the air interface and mayalso include the load on other communication paths and components, e.g.of certain components of the mobile communication network such as theload on an interface between the radio access network of the mobilecommunication network and a core network of the mobile communicationnetwork. The indication of the expected network load may for exampleallow the communication terminal to schedule data transmissions, as forexample required by one or more applications running on thecommunication terminal, for times in which the expected network load islow.

The base station 900 for example sends the indication of the expectedload to a communication terminal as illustrated in FIG. 10.

FIG. 10 shows a communication terminal 1000 according to an aspect ofthis disclosure.

The communication terminal 1000 includes a receiver 1001 configured toreceive, from a base station of a mobile communication network, anindication of an expected load of the mobile communication network.

It should be noted that aspects of this disclosure described in contextof one of the communication terminals are analogously valid for theother communication terminal, the network component, the base stationand the method for communicating and vice versa.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, a determiner may beimplemented by any kind of a logic implementing entity, which may bespecial purpose circuitry or a processor executing software stored in amemory, firmware, or any combination thereof. Thus, in an aspect of thisdisclosure, a determiner may be a hard-wired logic circuit or aprogrammable logic circuit such as a programmable processor, e.g. amicroprocessor (e.g. a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) processoror a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processor). A determinermay also be a processor executing software, e.g. any kind of computerprogram, e.g. a computer program using a virtual machine code such ase.g. Java. Any other kind of implementation of the respective functionsmay also be understood as a determiner in accordance with an alternativeaspect of this disclosure.

Aspects of this disclosure are described in the following in moredetail.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, two new functional entitiesare introduced, one functional entity on the mobile terminal side andone functional entity on the network side (also referred to asinfrastructure side). Further, according to one aspect of thisdisclosure, a corresponding messaging framework to negotiate an energyand resource efficient protocol stack behavior taking the transmissionrequirements of a software application installed on the mobile terminal(e.g. a third party application) into account is introduced. A componenton the network side (i.e. a network component) may be an entity in theradio access network, such as a base station and/or an entity in thecore network, such as an S-GW or a P-GW. According to one aspect of thisdisclosure, the messaging framework is utilized to exchange informationabout the application, control parameters and commands between the twonew functional entities over the air interface. This is illustrated inFIG. 11.

FIG. 11 shows a protocol stack 1100 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

The protocol stack 1100 illustrates the protocol stack on the mobileterminal side 1101 and the protocol stack on the network (orinfrastructure) side 1102. As explained with reference to FIG. 3, boththe protocol stack on the mobile terminal side 1101 (e.g. correspondingto mobile terminal 105 of FIG. 1) and the protocol stack on the networkside 1102 (e.g. corresponding to E-UTRAN 101 and/or core network 102 ofFIG. 1) includes a layer 1 LTE protocol layer 1103 (including the PHYlayer), a layer 2 LTE protocol layer 1104 (including the PDCP layer, theRLC layer and the MAC layer) and a layer 3 LTE protocol layer 1105(including the RRC layer). One or more software applications areinstalled and running on the mobile terminal 1101 which are representedby corresponding entities 1106 of the application layer according to theOSI reference model. On the infrastructure side 1102, the application'scounterparts (i.e. servers) that may reside in the Internet or in an “IPcloud”, such as the “Operator's IP Services Cloud” 515 of FIG. 5, arenot shown in FIG. 11 in order to reduce the complexity of the figure.

The protocol layer on the mobile terminal side 1101 includes, betweenthe layer 3 LTE protocol layer 1105 and the application layer, anintermediate layer 1107. Correspondingly, the protocol layer on thenetwork side 1102 includes, between the layer 3 LTE protocol layer 1105and the application layer, a (counterpart) intermediate layer 1108. Theintermediate layer 1107 on the mobile terminal side and the intermediatelayer 1108 on the network side can thus be seen to be implemented on topof the LTE protocol stack (including LTE protocol layers of layers 1 to3). Alternatively, according to another aspect of this disclosure, thefunctions of the intermediate layer (IL) on the mobile terminal side orthe network side or on both sides are implemented as a cross layerentity stretching over all seven layers of the OSI (Open SystemsInterconnection) model.

A messaging framework allows communication between the entities of theintermediate layer 1107 on the mobile terminal side and the intermediatelayer 1108 on the network side as illustrated by arrow 1109.

The intermediate layer 1107 on the mobile terminal side collects therequirements of the applications installed on the mobile terminal andits counterpart intermediate layer 1108 on the network side isresponsible for doing measurements and predictions on RAN load and/orbackhaul link load and/or CN load. It compiles a long-term time tablefor all relevant application classes. This time table (if deemed matureby the intermediate layer 1108 on the infrastructure side) may then beconveyed from the network (e.g. from a base station) over the LTE Uu(air) interface to the mobile terminal where it may be used by theintermediate layer 1107 on the mobile terminal side to control variousmobile terminal procedures.

It should be noted that the compilation of the time table on the networkside, in other words the evaluation of the measured load on the networkside, can be seen to correspond to the network component as describedwith reference to FIG. 7. According to another aspect of thisdisclosure, information about the network load, e.g. predictions on RANload and/or backhaul link load and/or CN load, are transmitted to theintermediate layer 1107 on the mobile side and are evaluated on themobile side. For example, the intermediate layer 1107 on the mobileterminal side generates a time table indicating for the applicationsinstalled on the mobile terminal the times at which the mobile terminalcommunicates with the mobile communication network to transmit/receivedata for the applications. For example, for each of a plurality ofapplication classes a suitable time for communication is determined.This can be seen to correspond to the base station described withreference to FIG. 9 which may transmit the indication of the expected(predicted) network load to the mobile terminal without evaluation (e.g.generation of a time table for the applications) on the network side.

It should further be noted that the mobile terminal, e.g. thecommunication terminal described with reference to FIG. 6, for examplethe intermediate layer 1107 on the mobile terminal side, may determinecommunication timings for the applications installed on the mobileterminal also without (i.e. independent from) load information or a timetable received from the network side. For example, the mobile terminalmay synchronize the communication times of two or more applicationsrunning on it without taking into account the network load. Even then,the number of establishments of communication connections can be reducedsince when the communication times of two applications are synchronized,it may be sufficient to establish a communication connection onceinstead of establish two communication connections at two differenttimes.

With the concept described with reference to FIG. 11 it can be forexample be assured that the idle mode (i.e. RRC_IDLE) 206 instead of theconnected mode (i.e. RRC_CONNECTED) 205 is used by the mobile terminalas long as possible and unnecessary transmissions are avoided especiallyduring times of heavy cell load. For instance, according to one aspectof this disclosure, over-the-air (OTA) signaling is only initiated

-   -   a) when enough u-plane data justifies any OTA signaling (this        condition is for example applied if communication resources are        scarce). This is for example applicable when multiple IM        (Instant Messaging) applications are running on the mobile        terminal and require/desire the periodic transmission of        keep-alive messages since uncoordinated keep-alive messages may        prevent the mobile terminal from entering idle mode. According        to one aspect of this disclosure, the transmissions of the        keep-alive messages are synchronized (e.g. by the intermediate        layer 1107 on the mobile terminal side) so that the idle mode        can be entered between two instances of data transmission.    -   b) when enough communication (or processing) resources are free        on the infrastructure side (if u-plane data is available). This        is for example applicable for software applications that        download large amounts of time tolerant data from the mobile        communication network, for example a news application that        synchronizes once a day with a news server. According to one        aspect of this disclosure, it is avoided that such downloads are        performed during times of heavy radio cell load (e.g. by taking        into account the time table provided by the network side or by        taking into account information about the expected network load        provided by the network side) and thus it is for example avoided        that cell overload is caused. For example, such downloads are        scheduled to times with low cell load to prevent radio cell        overload.

According to aspects of this disclosure, e.g. in accordance with theconcept described above with reference to FIG. 11, the number ofconnection establishments between the mobile terminal and thecommunication network can be reduced, radio cell overload can beavoided, communication resources on the precious air interface can besaved and battery power of the mobile terminal can be saved.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, the Intermediate layer 1107,1108 hosts the following functions:

-   -   1) On infrastructure side: load measurement, load estimation,        and long-term prediction of load on various interfaces, such as        the air interface (e.g. the LTE Uu interface) and/or the        backhaul link (e.g. the S1 interface). This is for example a        continuous process.    -   2) On mobile terminal side: classification of data going        to/coming from applications running on the mobile terminal into        application data classes and/or classification of the        applications running on the mobile terminal into application        classes.

3) On infrastructure side: time table creation and submission of thetime table (or related indications) to the mobile device. The time tablefor example indicates suitable or unsuitable connection times perapplication class or application data class. This is either a continuousprocess or done upon request of the mobile terminal. According toanother aspect of this disclosure, information about the expected loadin the network is transmitted to the mobile terminal side and the timetable is generated on the mobile terminal side.

-   -   4) On mobile terminal side: various mobile terminal procedures,        such as application data buffering, connection establishment        control and DRX control are performed following the guidance        included in the time table (or related indications). According        to one aspect of this disclosure, the time table is used to        influence the mobile terminal's cell re-selection behavior in        RRC_IDLE.

Possible classifications of data used by the applications running on themobile terminal (according to step 2 above) are for example:

-   -   Classification of the data according to time constraints, e.g.        the classes “urgent data”, “delay tolerant data”, etc.    -   Classification of the data according to submission/reception        patterns, e.g. “periodic data”, “sporadic data”, etc.    -   Classification of the data according to the amount of data, e.g.        the classes “large amount of data”, “medium amount of data”,        “small amount of data”, etc.    -   Classification of the data according to the importance of the        data, e.g. the classes “meaningful data”, “insignificant data”,        etc.

A classification of data may be equivalently seen as a classification ofthe application sending/receiving this data. For example, if data has acertain class (e.g. “periodic data”), the application sending/receivingthis data may be seen as having the class of an applicationsending/receiving (or using) this class of data. Accordingly, data classand application class may be used interchangeably according to an aspectof this disclosure.

An architecture of the mobile terminal according to one aspect of thisdisclosure is described in the following with reference to FIG. 12.

FIG. 12 shows a mobile terminal protocol stack 1200 according to anaspect of this disclosure.

Corresponding to the protocol stack on the mobile terminal side 1101 ofthe protocol stack 1100 shown in FIG. 11, the protocol stack 1200includes a layer 1 LTE protocol layer 1203 (including the PHY layer), alayer 2 LTE protocol layer 1204 (including the PDCP layer, the RLC layerand the MAC layer), a layer 3 LTE protocol layer 1205 (including the RRClayer), a mobile terminal side intermediate layer 1207 and entities ofthe application layer 1206 corresponding to applications running on themobile terminal. Further, as explained with reference to FIG. 3, theprotocol stack 1200 includes a NAS layer 1205 in the C-Plane 1208. Theintermediate layer 1107, 1207 resides in the U-Plane 1209.

The intermediate layer 1107, 1207 has control interfaces 1210 and userdata interfaces (user plane data interfaces) 1211 to other layers (e.g.to other system components). According to one aspect of this disclosurethe intermediate layer 1107 includes a data buffer for temporary storageof application data (e.g. in the mobile terminal for delay tolerantuplink submissions). According to one aspect of this disclosure, theintermediate layer controls logical channel prioritization and databuffering in the MAC layer over the ILPSL2 interface. On the c-plane1208, there are control plane data interfaces 1212.

In the following, an example is described in which it is assumed thattwo (software) applications were successfully downloaded and installedon the mobile terminal by the user and are running on the mobileterminal The first application is in this example a weather applicationthat requires periodic access to some data base in the Internet (forinstance to collect two updates on the weather forecast per day from aserver).

The second application is in this example assumed to be a presenceclient of a presence service. This is illustrated in FIG. 13.

FIG. 13 shows a presence service model 1300 according to an aspect ofthis disclosure.

The presence service model 1300 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure includes a presence service 1301, e.g. provided by a server,which gathers presence information from a presentity 1302. For example,the presence information of the presentity 1302 indicates whether theuser of the presentity 1302, e.g. a mobile device, is currentlyavailable for a call or does not want to be disturbed. A watcher 1303,e.g. another mobile device, retrieves the presence information from thepresence service 1301. The watcher 1303 may be a subscribed watcher 1304(requests notification of presence information changes from the presenceserver), a fetcher 1305 (requests current value of presence informationfrom the presence server) or a poller 1306 (requests presenceinformation on a regular basis from the presence server).

For example, the mobile terminal is a presentity 1302 such that thesecond application has sporadic communication needs in uplink direction,i.e. whenever a certain event (change in status) on the mobile terminalis detected and needs to be reported to the presence server. In thiscase the second application needs a connection in order to convey thepresence information to the presence server.

The second application may also have periodic communication needs indownlink direction caused by regular polls for status updates, e.g. whenthe mobile terminal is a watcher 1303 and wants to retrieve the presenceinformation of another mobile terminal presence information from thepresence server on a regular basis, e.g. acts as a poller 1306. In thiscase the need for downlink communication comes together with a shortuplink communication need (for the corresponding request message for thepresence information).

It is assumed that both the first application and the second applicationare ready for usage, e.g. have been started on the mobile terminal.

For the first application, the intermediate layer 1107, 1207 monitorsthe traffic caused by the weather application over time on the user datainterface between the intermediate layer 1107, 1207 and the firstapplication (e.g. the UPA₁ interface in FIG. 12 assuming that the firstapplication corresponds to the entity of the application layer denotedApp#1). In detail, the intermediate layer for example monitors theamount of data sourced by and/or destined for the first application. Theintermediate layer also monitors the number and circumstances of theconnection setup attempts initiated by the weather application over time(e.g. on the UPA₁ interface).

For example, after a few days of learning the communication behavior ofthe first application (which may be seen as the communication behaviorof the mobile terminal desired by the first application) theintermediate layer for example derives that the first application causesperiodic downlink traffic twice a day (e.g. at around 5 a.m. and ataround 2 p.m.) with relatively small amounts of data.

For the second application, the intermediate layer does a similarmonitoring (e.g. the UPA₂ interface in FIG. 12 assuming that the secondapplication corresponds to the entity of the application layer denotedApp#2), for example of the transmitted amount of data, the number ofconnection setup attempts, etc. caused by the second application. Aftera few hours of learning, for example, the intermediate layer derivesthat the second application causes sporadic uplink traffic with verysmall amounts of data and regular uplink/downlink traffic pairs with acertain time pattern (depending on the selected refresh rate for thefunction as poller).

In other words, in this example, the intermediate layer 1207 dynamicallydetects the traffic characteristics of the first application and thesecond application.

The intermediate layer 1108 on the network side determines the trafficcharacteristics (e.g. primarily by measuring the traffic load) on allrelevant interfaces over a certain amount of time (e.g. a predeterminedsufficiently long time period). For example, traffic on the LTE Uu airinterface and on the S1 link (i.e. S1 interface) into the core networkare used to determine traffic characteristics and to create a time tablethat may be used by the intermediate layer 1107, 1207 in the mobileterminal to control application data buffering, connectionestablishment, and DRX.

The intermediate layer 1107 on the mobile terminal side for exampletries to find a scheduling for the transmission of data of both thefirst application and the second application while trying to meet thetransmission requirements of both applications. A trade-off may berequired between the transmission requirements of the first application,the transmission requirements of the second application and/or the timetable.

It should be noted that the transmission requirement of an applicationmay be seen as a communication behavior of the mobile terminal desiredby the application since the application may be seen to desire from themobile terminal to communicate such that the transmission requirementsof the application are fulfilled (e.g. a communication connection isestablished when the application needs to transmit data etc.).Similarly, a communication behavior of an application may be seen as acommunication behavior desired by the application of the mobileterminal.

It should further be noted that a time table that has been created mayonly be suitable for mobile terminals that are served by the same basestation, in case mobility aspects (including load in other RAN nodes andon other core network interfaces) were not taken into account.Therefore, according to one aspect of this disclosure, calculation ofthe load is done in a collaborative effort among many RAN and corenetwork entities that may be dispersed throughout the mobilecommunication network (e.g. cellular communication network), such asbase stations, mobility management entities (MMEs), serving gateways(S-GWs), packet data gateways (P-GWs), etc.

Information about the network load (or an indication of the networkload) may generally include time dependent pieces of information andlocation (or link) dependent pieces of information and it may fall intothe responsibility of the merging entity (e.g. the intermediate layer1108 on the network side or the intermediate layer 1107 on the mobileterminal side) to combine and possibly tag all these pieces ofinformation in a sensible way, e.g. before a time table is conveyed tothe mobile terminal (in case that it is created by the intermediatelayer 1108 on the network side) and/or before it is used by the mobileterminal.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, the network side providesthe mobile terminal with a load prediction for more than one alternativeradio cells, links or access points, i.e. the information about the loadpredication includes information about the location dependency of theload. This is illustrated in FIG. 14.

FIG. 14 shows a first load-time diagram 1401 and a second load-timediagram 1402.

In the first load-time diagram 1401 and the second load-time diagram1402 time is indicated along a first axis 1403 and load is indicatedalong a second axis 1404.

For example, the first load-time diagram 1401 indicates the expectedload (over 24 hours), e.g. based on the load situation in the past, of afirst radio cell (e.g. the number of mobile terminals using the radiocell in a percentage of the maximum mobile terminals that can be servedby the radio cell). The second load-time diagram 1402 for examplesimilarly indicates the expected load in a second radio cell, forexample neighboring the first radio cell. The mobile terminal is forexample provided from the network with information about thetime-dependent load in the two radio cells as given by the two load-timediagrams 1401, 1402.

This information about the estimated (or expected) load in two (or more)radio cells can be used to assist the mobile terminal in making timebased cell re-selection decisions (e.g., if the mobile terminal residesin RRC_IDLE mode of operation 206 as described in FIG. 2). For example,the mobile terminal may take the load predictions of its current radiocell (i.e. the radio cell it is currently camping on, or using forcommunication) in combination with a load prediction of one or morealternative radio cells (e.g. neighboring cells) into account, e.g. whenit evaluates neighbor cell measurements for making cell re-selectiondecisions. For instance, the mobile might decide to camp on the secondradio cell at noon (corresponding to 12 h on the time axis 1403) whensuch a behavior is justified by the needs of one or more applicationsrunning on the mobile terminal (i.e. is justified by the communicationbehavior of the mobile terminal desired by the one or more applications)even if the legacy cell selection criteria (i.e. the criteria not takinginto account the application needs) would cause the mobile terminal tostay in the first radio cell at noon (since the first radio cell is forexample higher ranked for the cell reselection e.g. due to the fact thatthe radio link quality between the base station operating the firstradio cell and the mobile terminal is higher than the radio link qualitybetween the base station operating the second radio cell and the mobileterminal). Such exceptional camping on the second radio cell is forexample only done if the radio link quality between the mobile terminaland the base station operating the second radio cell is not much worsecompared to the higher ranked first radio cell.

According to an aspect of this disclosure, the data to determine (e.g.calculate) a time table (e.g. measurements of network load) is collectedover a long period of time to improve reliability. The time table cantherefore be expected to remain valid for a relatively long time.According to an aspect of this disclosure, the time table may bebroadcast (e.g. via system information broadcast) to all mobileterminals residing in a certain radio cell or may be sent to a mobileterminals using a dedicated bearer (i.e. using a dedicated communicationconnection) upon request by the mobile terminal Once the (at least oneinstance of a) time table is received from the network, the intermediatelayer 1107, 1207 in the mobile terminal may start working to accommodatethe transmission and reception needs of one or more applications runningon the mobile terminal. This may include

-   -   application data buffering (e.g. in a buffer assigned to or        included in the intermediate layer 1107 on the mobile terminal        side), e.g. until the time of the establishment of a        communication connection;    -   connection establishment control (for instance via the ILPSL3        interface), e.g. preparing a schedule for the establishments of        communication connections;    -   DRX control (for instance, via the ILPSL3 interface) and    -   influencing the mobile terminal's cell re-selection behavior.

For example, when the time table indicates that a certain period is wellsuited for the communication of data that does only allow little delayin the transmission, the mobile terminal may schedule the establishmentof a communication connection for the transmission of this data intothis period.

According to a further example, two applications were successfullydownloaded and installed on the mobile terminal by the user. The firstapplication of these two applications is assumed to be an instantmessaging client that requires sporadic exchange of relatively smalldata packages in both uplink and downlink direction while the user isengaged in a conversation. Regardless of the state of conversation, theinstant messaging client is assumed to also submit some very small andpredictable keep alive messages (either to check whether the linkbetween the two peers is still operating or to prevent the link frombeing terminated).

The second application of the two applications is assumed to be areal-time sports application that receives many small updates on eventsthat take place in the matches for selected leagues during game days.

It is assumed that both applications are ready for usage.

It is assumed that the first application (instant messaging client)after its successful installation informs the intermediate layer 1107,1207 on the mobile terminal side via a control interface 1210 (e.g. anILA interface, e.g. the control interface 1210 indicated as ILA₁ in casethat the first application corresponds to the application layer entity1206 indicated as App#1) about its class (e.g. “instant messagingclient”) and/or about its transmission requirements/behavior in detail(e.g. “sporadic traffic source”, “sporadic traffic sink”, “small amountof data”, “delay tolerance=5sec” and so on). In this case theintermediate layer 1207 does not need to monitor the amount and type ofdata transmitted between the intermediate layer and the application viathe user data interface 1211 (e.g. the UPA₁ interface). It does not haveto count the number of connection setup attempts either. Generally,there is no need of learning about this application's specific trafficcharacteristics because the application provides information about itstransmission requirements.

Similarly, in this example, it is assumed that after its successfulinstallation the second application (sports application) informs theintermediate layer 1107, 1207 about its application class (“real-timesports news ticker”) and/or its transmission requirements/behavior indetail (e.g. “sporadic traffic source”, “regular traffic sink”,“relatively small amounts of data”, “delay tolerance=5 min”, “onlyactive on Saturday and Sunday afternoon”, etc.), for example togetherwith the first submission of u-plane data on its user data interface1210 to the intermediate layer 1207 (e.g. the interface indicated asUPA₂ in FIG. 12 in case that the second application corresponds to theapplication layer entity 1206 indicated as App#2).

It is assumed that the second application has received information aboutdate and time of a few following relevant sports events in course of apreceding communication session. It indicates to the intermediate layer1207 the time at which it is becoming active to receive informationabout the sport events and for how long it plans on remaining in thisactive state. This indication is for example provided by the secondapplication to the intermediate layer 1207 with the first submission ofu-plane data in uplink direction to the intermediate layer 1207. In thiscase the intermediate layer 1207 can reduce monitoring activity on theuser data interface between the intermediate layer 1207 and the secondapplication (e.g. the UPA₂ interface) during the inactivity times of theapplication (i.e. the times in which the application is not in theactive state for downloading data) as indicated by the application.

It is assumed that the counterpart intermediate layer 1208 on thenetwork side has determined traffic characteristics on relevantinterfaces (e.g. on all relevant interfaces) over a decent amount oftime. It is thus ready to create and provide a time table to the mobileterminal. The time table received from the network side is used by theintermediate layer 1207 in the mobile terminal to accommodate thetransmission and reception needs (i.e. the transmission requirements) ofthe application. This may for example include

-   -   application data buffering (preferably in a buffer assigned to        or included in the IL),    -   connection establishment control (for instance, via the ILPSL3        interface),    -   DRX control (for instance, via the ILPSL3 interface), and    -   influencing the mobile terminal's cell re-selection behavior.

Alternatively, the intermediate layer 1207 can coordinate (or instruct)data buffering in the mobile terminal's transmission buffer assigned tothe MAC layer of the protocol stack (i.e., in layer 2 1204) via theILPSL2 interface.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, in addition to the staticinformation received from the first application and the secondapplication the intermediate layer 1207 may choose to do some additionaltraffic monitoring of u-plane data exchanged with the applications viathe corresponding user data interfaces 1211.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, system information (SI)broadcast of an LTE communication network is used as a mechanism toprovide a time table to a mobile terminal over the air interface (e.g.the LTE Uu interface). A time table for example indicates suitableand/or unsuitable connection opportunities per application class (e.g.DDA-class), or, in other words, suggested communication times (orsuggested periods of communication) per application class, possibly alsoper location, e.g. per radio cell, once the informationcollected/predicted by the infrastructure counterpart about the networkload is deemed mature.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, dedicated signaling isused to provide a time table to a mobile terminal over the air interface(e.g. the LTE Uu interface). In contrast to system information (SI)broadcast described above, dedicated signaling methods allowprovisioning of individual time tables to distinct mobile terminals(i.e. a mobile terminal's special need can be taken care of individuallyby the infrastructure).

However, unexpectedly, temporary events may occur making a time tableprovided from the network side to a mobile terminal temporarily unfit(i.e. inappropriate) or useless. For instance, a time table may indicatelong-term connection opportunities indicating that the time period from10 p.m. to 4 a.m. of the next day is a good opportunity to set-up aconnection for a(n) (set of) application(s) 1106, 1206 of a certainapplication class (e.g. for delay tolerant applications, such asmaintenance reports or none-real time advertizing updates, etc.) inradio cell. However, let a motorway be going through the location of theradio cell and let, due to an accident on the motorway, the lanes befilled up with cars. The people in the cars will likely pull out theirmobile devices in order to call their family to inform them about theirdelay in coming home or simply to kill waiting time by browsing theInternet. In other words, all the people waiting in their cars may causea lot of unexpected traffic (e.g. non DDA-traffic) in the radio cell ata time where according to the time table DDAs are scheduled to doconnection set-ups to perform their communication.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, the communication behaviorof the mobile terminal as indicated by the time table (e.g. forDDA-related communication) is paused. Specifically, according to oneaspect of this disclosure, a mobile terminal is notified when a timetable does not fit temporarily and should not be used. According to oneaspect of this disclosure, the mobile terminal is further notified aboutthe predicted duration of the deviation from the time table (in otherwords the abnormal service behavior) in the location (e.g. radio cell).According to one aspect of this disclosure, the start and stop times ofdeviation from the time table is explicitly signaled.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, the mobile communicationnetwork (e.g. a base station) sends out a deviation notification (DN) tothe mobile terminal The intermediate layer 1207 in the mobile terminalmay, when it receives a deviation notification, deviate from theschedule according to the time table (e.g. its normal DDA behavior) withrespect to its operation of the LTE Protocol Stack (LTE PS), e.g. DRXcontrol, the scheduled times for communication establishments, and mayfor example reduce the load on the RAN and the core network at a givenlocation (e.g. radio cell), e.g. by partial or complete blocking oftraffic caused by applications (e.g. DDAs). Non-application traffic,i.e. traffic of data that are not related to an application, e.g. datawhich are not generated or consumed by an application (e.g. non-DDAtraffic, i.e. traffic of data that are not related to a DDA e.g. datawhich are not generated or consumed by a DDA) may benefit from thisdeviation mechanism and at a later point in time the applications may beallowed to resume with their connection set-up attempts.

For example, the following is carried out:

-   -   1) Detect a deviation from predicted traffic characteristics in        the network.    -   2) Check in the network whether the detected deviation has an        impact on previously submitted time tables (e.g. in a certain        location).    -   3) Determine (predict) a duration of the detected deviation.    -   4) If there is an impact and the duration exceeds a given        threshold: Send a deviation notification (DN) from the network        to the mobile terminal (e.g. to each concerned mobile terminal).        For this, for example, the system information (SI) broadcast        method of LTE may be adjusted (in various ways) for allowing the        sending of deviation notifications. Alternatively, dedicated        signaling (as explained above) may also be used.    -   5) Upon reception of a deviation notification (DN) in the mobile        terminal: Let the mobile terminal (re-)configure the LTE        Protocol Stack (LTE PS) to deviate from normal (i.e. previously        scheduled) application data communication behavior (e.g. DDA        communication control behavior). This may for example include        blocking delay tolerant traffic of one or more applications        running on the mobile terminal.    -   6) When the deviation time is over (as for example indicated in        the deviation notification) return in the mobile terminal to the        normal (i.e. previously scheduled) application data        communication behavior.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, system information (SI)broadcast according to LTE communication is used to distribute adeviation notification together with a (predicted) duration of thedeviation in a newly introduced information element DDA-Deviation-Startto all mobile terminals in a certain region, e.g. a radio cell, e.g.having the following structure.

DDA-Deviation-Start ::= SEQUENCE { DDA-Class ENUMERATED {class1, class2,class3, class4, ..., class8}, Duration ENUMERATED {m1, m5, m10, m15,m30, m60, m120, m180} }

The number of DDA classes (generally application classes) is arbitrarilyset to eight in this example. Other values are possible. For theduration, the value “m1” for example indicates 1 minute, “m5” indicates“5 minutes”, and so on.

The information element may for example be added to SIB (SystemInformation Block)-Type 1.

For example, the information element indicates that for class 2, thereshould be a deviation from the schedule in accordance with the timetable for 5 minutes and, for example, traffic of applications of class 2should be blocked instead. According to one aspect of this disclosure,generally, a deviation for a certain application class for a certainduration may mean that traffic of applications of this application classshould be blocked.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, when a mobile terminalreceives the deviation notification it measures the time and returns,when the duration indicated in the deviation notification is over, tothe previously scheduled communication behavior (without needing to betriggered to do this from the outside). It may be desirable to use thisapproach when the duration can be determined with a high degree ofreliability on the network side and the mobile terminal is capable ofmeasuring time with a certain degree of accuracy.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, an information elementis introduced and added to the system information broadcast having thefollowing structure

DDA-Deviation ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..max)) OF DDAInfo DDA-Info ::=SEQUENCE { Class ENUMERATED {class1, class2, class3, class4, ...,class8}, Command ENUMERATED {Start, End} }

Here, max indicates the number of DDA-Info sets per DDA-Deviation. itcan be less than the number of all classes available (arbitrarily set toeight in this example). DDA-Info allows Indication of start or end perDDA Class wherein “start” indicates the beginning of a deviation periodand “end” indicates the resumption of normal DDA behavior.

Normal DDA behavior (or generally normal application data communicationbehavior) for example means the communication behavior as set by theintermediate layer 1107, 1207 in the mobile terminal based on the timetable received from the network to accommodate the transmission andreception needs of the applications.

The information element may for example be added to SIB (SystemInformation Block)-Type 1.

Using the deviation notification according to this aspect of thisdisclosure, start time and stop time may be indicated separately per DDAclass. In other words the beginning of the deviation from normal DDAbehavior and the return to the normal DDA behavior can be explicitlysignaled to the mobile terminal Accordingly, the mobile terminal doesnot need to measure the duration since the start of the deviation. Itmay be desirable to use this approach when the duration of the deviationis hard to predict on the network side.

As described above, according to one aspect of this disclosure, anapplication installed on a mobile terminal informs the mobile terminalabout its application class or its transmission requirements. Accordingto one aspect of this disclosure, it is checked whether an applicationthat was installed on a mobile terminal and indicates to belong to acertain application class (e.g. DDA class) or indicates to have certaintransmission requirements (e.g. DDA data transmission relatedrequirements/properties) indeed belongs to the application class orindeed has the indicated transmission requirements. Thus, it can beavoided that, due to an application indicating a wrong class or wrongtransmission requirements, the intermediate layer 1107, 1108 on themobile terminal side applies inappropriate settings to the lowerprotocol layers (e.g. layers 1 to 3 of the LTE protocol stack), e.g.schedules inappropriate connection times, and the mobile terminalbehaves inappropriately. For example, it may be avoided that a thirdparty application tampers with the LTE protocol stack configuration inthe scope of DDA (Diverse Data Applications).

For this, according to one aspect of this disclosure, the intermediatelayer 1107, 1108 interworks with a secure processing environment (SPE).This is illustrated in FIG. 15.

FIG. 15 shows a mobile terminal architecture 1500 according to an aspectof this disclosure.

According to the mobile terminal architecture 1500, the mobile terminalimplements a protocol stack as shown in FIG. 12, i.e. implements a layer1 LTE protocol layer 1503 (including the PHY layer), a layer 2 LTEprotocol layer 1504 (including the PDCP layer, the RLC layer and the MAClayer), a layer 3 LTE protocol layer 1505 (including the RRC layer), amobile terminal side intermediate layer 1507, entities of theapplication layer 1506 corresponding to applications running on themobile terminal and a NAS layer 1505. Between these layers, there areinterfaces 1510, 1511, 1512 as explained with reference to FIG. 12.

Further, the mobile terminal includes a secure processing environment(SPE) 1501 connected to the intermediate layer 1507 via an ILSPEinterface 1516 which may for example be implemented by a (for exampleremovable) UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card) 1502 (or anothersmart card) plugged into the mobile terminal.

While mobile phones operating according to the GSM standard require aSIM card for usage in the mobile network, mobile phones operatingaccording to the UMTS and LTE standards require a UICC with at least oneUSIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module). Both type of cards (SIMCard and UICC) offer storage capability for applications and applicationdata in their application memory. Most of these applications aretypically mobile communication specific and thus are issued, maintained,and updated by the mobile network operator. Trustworthy applications mayalso be stored in the application memory of a smart card. This may beused for implementing the SPE 1502. The most important architectureelements of a smart card such as a UICC may be seen as:

-   -   the application memory (e.g. an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable        Programmable Read-Only Memory), e.g. used for storing        applications, USAT (USIM application toolkit) applets and data        (such as SMS messages, MMS messages, a phone book, etc.);    -   the ROM (Read-Only Memory), e.g. used for storing the USAT,        smart card applications (e.g. USIM, ISIM (IP multimedia system        SIM), etc.), the file system, algorithms, the JAVA virtual        machine and the operating system    -   the RAM (Random Access Memory), e.g. used as working memory and        for the storage of results from calculations or input/output        (I/O) communications    -   the Microprocessor Unit (MPU), e.g. used for the execution of        instructions and    -   the I/O Controller, e.g. used for the management of data blow        between the mobile terminal and the microprocessor.

In a mobile communication system operating according to the GSM standardthe SIM Card and the Mobile Equipment (ME) together form a MobileStation (MS), whereas in a mobile communication system operatingaccording to the UMTS and LTE standards the UICC (in the ROM of whichmultiple SIM and USIM may reside) and the mobile equipment (ME) togetherform a User Equipment (UE).

According to one aspect of this disclosure, the SPE 1501 is implementedby means of a trusted platform module (TPM), e.g. instead of beingimplemented by the UICC 1502. For this, the mobile terminal may includea trusted platform module (TPM) providing a trusted processingenvironment which for example is inseparably mounted on (one of) thecircuit board(s) of the mobile terminal.

The trusted platform module (TPM) is an integrated circuit module thathas been developed as part of the TCG specification (TCG—TrustedComputing Group, formerly known as TCPA) in order to provide a secureenvironment for personal computers (PCs). It resembles a smart cardinseparably mounted on a computation platform. The difference to a smartcard can be seen in that it is coupled to a system (computationplatform) rather than to a user. Other deployment scenarios—apart frompersonal computers (PCs)—are PDA (personal digital assistants), cellularphones, and also consumer electronics. A TPM chip is a passive element.It cannot actively influence neither the bootstrapping process of thesystem nor any ongoing operation. However, it holds a uniqueidentification tag that can be used to identify a system (computationplatform) unambiguously. Furthermore, a TPM can generate, use and storea number of different keys (e.g., for encryption algorithms or digitalsignatures). The biggest benefit of a TPM can be seen in that these keysneed not to be used outside the TPM, but all computations are donewithin the trusted domain of the TPM instead. Software attacks aretherefore deemed impossible. Also protection from hardware attacks isrelatively good (similar to secure smart cards). TPMs are manufacturedin a way that physical attacks result inevitably in the destruction ofall data. According to one aspect of this disclosure, the Intermediatelayer 1507 in the mobile terminal takes advantage of the TPM'scapabilities in terms of verification of digital signatures.

According to one aspect of this disclosure, the SPE 1501 performs areliability (e.g. authenticity) check on information (and/or messagesand commands) received from a third party application with respect totheir application class or their transmission requirements. After asuccessful validation of the authenticity of the information receivedfrom the application the intermediate layer 1507 configures the LTEProtocol Stack (i.e. the LTE protocol layers 1501, 1502, 1503) based onthe received information, e.g. taking into account a time table receivedfrom the network to reduce the number of connection establishments,enhance the utilization of resources on the air interface and savebattery power in the UE.

For example, the following is carried out for an application installedon the mobile terminal:

-   -   1) Store a public key K_(public) of a trustworthy authority in        the SPE 1501.    -   2) Let the trustworthy authority digitally sign a registration        message of the application with the authority's key K_(private)        prior to publication of the application, wherein the        registration message may include application-related (e.g.        DDA-related) information, such as    -   an indication of the application class of the application,    -   a typically expected downlink traffic characteristic,    -   a typically expected UL traffic characteristic,    -   an allowed delay range,    -   etc.    -   3) Let the application provide, e.g. upon installing of the        application on the mobile terminal, its signed registration        message to the intermediate layer 1507 and let the intermediate        layer 1507 interwork with the SPE 1501 to    -   perform an integrity check of the application-related        information, and/or    -   validate the signature of the application-related information        (i.e. of the registration message).

4) If, based on the integrity check and the validation of the signaturethe registration message is regarded as being authentic, allow theintermediate layer 1507 to (re-) configure the communication behavior(e.g. including configuring the LTE protocol stack) based on theapplication-related information.

For example, a first application (e.g. a weather application) is assumedto be successfully downloaded and installed on the mobile terminal bythe user. It informs the intermediate layer 1507, e.g. afterinstallation on the mobile terminal or during the first exchange of datawith the intermediate layer 1507, e.g. with its first execution on themobile terminal, about its transmission requirements, e.g. itsapplication class (e.g. DDA traffic class). In this example, to allowchecking of the integrity of the transmission requirements and to allowvalidation of the authenticity of the transmission requirements, theapplication is classified by a trustworthy authority before it isreleased or published. The timeline is illustrated in FIG. 16.

FIG. 16 shows a flow diagram 1600 according to an aspect of thisdisclosure.

In 1601, the application is designed and developed.

In 1602, the information about the transmission characteristics (e.g. aDDA message) is signed. For example, the information about theapplication class assigned to the application (e.g. “weatherapplication” or “instant messaging client” etc.) or other DDA-relatedpieces of information (such as “causing sporadic UL traffic”, “maximumdelay tolerance of 5sec”, etc.) is digitally signed by a trustedauthority (with its private key K_(private)). The trusted authority canbe for example the author of the application, a test house, theapplication portal owner, the MNO (Mobile Network Operator), etc.

In 1603, the application is published, e.g. on an application store.After download in 1604 and installation of the application on the mobileterminal in 1605 or when the application submits data in uplinkdirection for the first time to the mobile terminal in 1606 (e.g. duringits first activation), the intermediate layer 1507 uses the capabilitiesprovided by the secure processing environment 1501 to verify theintegrity of the information about the transmission characteristics (forexample also referred to as DDA-related information) and to validate theaccompanying signature (with the authorities public key K_(public)) in1607. If the SPE 1501 finds a valid digital signature, the intermediatelayer 1507 has reason to believe that the information about thetransmission characteristics (e.g. the DDA class) received from theapplication under test was created by a known and trustworthy sender,and that it was not altered during transit.

The information about the transmission characteristics of theapplication are for example sent to the intermediate layer 1507 via oneof the ILA interfaces shown in FIG. 15, e.g. the ILA₁ interface in casethat the application corresponds to the entity of the application layerdenoted as App#1.

The information about the transmission characteristics, e.g. in form ofa DDA registration message may include DDA-related information, such as

-   -   the DDA class of the application,    -   the typically expected downlink traffic characteristic of the        application,    -   the typically expected uplink traffic characteristic of the        application,    -   the allowed delay range (or separate values to indicate minimum        and maximum delay), of the application    -   etc.

In the SPE 1501 the public key K_(public) of the trustworthy authorityis stored. It is used to perform an integrity check on the informationabout the transmission requirements of the application (or partsthereof) and to validate the signature of the information about thetransmission requirements (e.g. the signature of the DDA registrationmessage). The SPE 1501 informs the intermediate layer 1507 about theoutcome of these two operations. If the information about thetransmission requirements of the application is not corrupted (as seenby the integrity check) and the information about the transmissionrequirements of the application is regarded as being authentic (as seenby the signature validation), the intermediate layer 1507 may choose toconsider (i.e. take into account) this information about thetransmission requirements of the application when it, in 1608,determines the configuration of the LTE protocol stack (e.g. schedulesconnection establishments, controls DRX, etc.), or, in other words,determines the resulting DDA (re-)configuration profile, and(re-)configures the LTE Protocol Stack of the mobile terminalaccordingly.

According to another aspect of this disclosure, the intermediate layer1507 detects the traffic characteristics of the applications installedon the mobile terminal and forwards its findings to the SPE 1501 to letthe SPE 1501 determine the application classes of the applications. Inthis case, there is no need to perform integrity checks or to validateauthenticity, assuming that the SPE 1501 itself is trustworthy (e.g. MNOcontrolled or certified).

According to another aspect of this disclosure, applications installedon the mobile terminal are not required to send information about theirtransmission characteristics (e.g. DDA registration messages) to theintermediate layer 1507 over the ILA interfaces. Instead theintermediate layer 1507 receives u-plane data from the applications viathe UPA_(x) interfaces and lets the SPE 1501, for each application,determine the application class based on the u-plane data received fromthis application. For this, the u-plane may be conveyed over the ILSPEinterface 1516 to the SPE 1501 where the trusted operations take place,and an answer is sent back by the SPE 1501 over the ILSPE interface1516. This answer may be of similar format as the information abouttransmission characteristics sent by an application (e.g. a DDAregistration message sent by an application), i.e. may for exampleinclude DDA-related information, such as

-   -   the DDA Class of the application,    -   the typically expected downlink traffic characteristic of the        application,    -   the typically expected uplink traffic characteristic of the        application,    -   the allowed delay range of the application (or separate values        to indicate minimum and maximum delay),    -   etc.

While various embodiments have been particularly shown and describedwith reference to specific aspects, it should be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of variousembodiments as defined by the appended claims. The scope of variousembodiments is thus indicated by the appended claims and all changeswhich come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims aretherefore intended to be embraced.

1. A communication terminal comprising: a first determiner configured todetermine, for a software application installed on the communicationterminal, a desired communication behavior of the communication terminalfor the exchange of data for the software application; a seconddeterminer configured to determine a time for the exchange of databetween the communication terminal and a mobile communication networkdepending on the determined desired communication behavior; and atransceiver configured to communicate with the mobile communicationnetwork at the determined time.
 2. The communication terminal accordingto claim 1, wherein the first determiner is configured to determine thedesired communication behavior based on information provided by thesoftware application to the first determiner.
 3. The communicationterminal according to claim 1, wherein the first determiner isconfigured to determine the desired communication behavior based oninformation about transmission characteristics of the softwareapplication.
 4. The communication terminal according to claim 3, whereinthe first determiner is configured to receive the information abouttransmission characteristics of the software application from thesoftware application.
 5. The communication terminal according to claim4, further comprising a security module configured to check at least oneof the integrity and the authenticity of the information about thetransmission characteristics.
 6. The communication terminal according toclaim 3, wherein the information about the transmission characteristicsof the software application is an indication of an application class ofthe software application.
 7. The communication terminal according toclaim 1, further comprising a receiver configured to receive, from themobile communication network, for at least one desired communicationbehavior of the communication terminal, a suggested time for theexchange of data between the communication terminal and the mobilecommunication network and wherein the second determiner is configured todetermine the time for the exchange of data between the communicationterminal and the mobile communication network based on the receivedsuggested time.
 8. The communication terminal according to claim 1,wherein the transceiver is configured to establish a communicationconnection to the mobile communication network at the determined time.9. The communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein the exchangeof data for the software application is the exchange of data used by thesoftware application.
 10. The communication terminal according to claim1, wherein the exchange of data used by the software applicationincludes at least one of the sending of data generated by the softwareapplication and the reception of data to be processed by the softwareapplication.
 11. The communication terminal according to claim 1,wherein the transceiver is configured to exchange data used by thesoftware application at the determined time.
 12. The communicationterminal according to claim 1, wherein the first determiner isconfigured to determine the desired communication behavior based ondetecting the communication behavior of the software application duringa predetermined period.
 13. The communication terminal according toclaim 12, wherein the first determiner is configured to determine thedesired communication behavior as the detected communication behavior.14. The communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein the desiredcommunication behavior includes at least one of an amount of data to betransmitted or received by the software application during a certainperiod of time, a frequency of an occurrence of a desired transmissionor reception of data for the software application.
 15. The communicationterminal according to claim 1, wherein the first determiner isconfigured to determine, for each of a plurality of softwareapplications installed on the communication terminal, a desiredcommunication behavior of the communication terminal for the exchange ofdata for the software application and wherein the second determiner isconfigured to determine a time for the exchange of data for each of theplurality of software applications between the communication terminaland the mobile communication network depending on the determined desiredcommunication behaviors and wherein the transceiver is configured toexchange data for each of the plurality of software applications withthe mobile communication network at the determined time.
 16. Thecommunication terminal according to claim 1, wherein the determined timeis a period of time.
 17. The communication terminal according to claim1, wherein the second determiner is configured to determine a radio cellof the mobile communication network for the exchange of data between thecommunication terminal and the mobile communication network based on thedesired communication behavior and the transceiver is configured toexchange data with the mobile communication network at the determinedtime using the determined radio cell.
 18. The communication terminalaccording to claim 1, wherein the second determiner is configured toreceive information about the expected load of the mobile communicationnetwork and is configured to determine the time for the exchange of databetween the communication terminal and the mobile communication networkbased on the information about the expected load.
 19. A networkcomponent of a mobile communication network comprising: a determinerconfigured to determine, for at least one communication behavior of acommunication terminal for the exchange of data for a softwareapplication, the at least one communication behavior being desired bythe software application, a time suggested for the exchange of data forthe software application between the communication terminal and themobile communication network; and a transmitter configured to transmitan indication to the communication terminal specifying that for the atleast one communication behavior the determined time is suggested forthe exchange of data for the software application between thecommunication terminal and the mobile communication network.
 20. Thenetwork component according to claim 19, wherein the determiner isconfigured to determine the suggested time based on an estimation of theexpected load of the mobile communication network.
 21. A method forcommunicating with a mobile communication network comprising:determining, for a software application installed on the communicationterminal, a desired communication behavior of the communication terminalfor the exchange of data for the software application; determining atime for the exchange of data between the communication terminal and themobile communication network depending on the determined desiredcommunication behavior; and communicating with the mobile communicationnetwork at the determined time.
 22. A base station of a mobilecommunication network comprising a transmitter configured to transmit anindication of an expected load of the mobile communication network to acommunication terminal.
 23. A communication terminal comprising: areceiver configured to receive, from a base station of a mobilecommunication network, an indication of an expected load of the mobilecommunication network.
 24. The communication terminal according to claim23, further comprising: a determiner configured to determine a time forthe transmission of data via the communication network based on theindication; and a transmitter configured to transmit the data at thedetermined time.